In a world that has been experiencing the rise of ultranationalist, xenophobic and reactionary populism for decades, European democracies are finding it increasingly difficult to stand out.
Witnesses (and sometimes accomplices) of a normalization of the extreme right, in search of transforming Europe into a white fortress rejecting immigration and rejecting miscegenation and diversity, the governments and authorities in Brussels, Rome, Paris, or even Berlin are slow to react. They persist in their obsession with growth and economic exchanges, to the detriment of major political and societal issues. As for the progressive forces, fragmented and incapable of transforming the necessary mobilizations and oppositions into the conquest of power, they are in clear retreat, despite some electoral surges.
The pandemic and its heavy consequences have aggravated this situation and further weakened the confidence of a large part of the citizens in their institutions, elites and representatives, while amplifying social, racial and territorial inequalities.
In addition to all this, since February 2022, there has been the anxiety and anguish caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of war on European soil. The demons of a not so distant past seem to be back in many countries.
It is in this tense and oppressive European and international context that the presidential elections were held in France in April, preceded by very violent political and media campaigns and with a record abstention (the highest in fifty years).
